120 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



stage. Whether he was doubtful about his weight we 

 cannot say, but we are sure he was anxious about the 

 small quantity of jewellery he carried about him, as a 

 plain gold pin was changed for a black one, and he 

 weighed it and himself as carefully as a chemist would a 

 pennyweight of magnesia. So far satisfied, the next 

 process was to remove the shirt, which he did in a 

 manner as unintelligible as the Davenport Brothers, for 

 we are certain he never took his jacket off. The shirt 

 was subjected to a similar rigid test as the collar, and 

 the result, we presume, was satisfactory, for it was care- 

 fully rolled up and put away, the neckerchief pinned 

 down as neatly as before, minus the collar, and a thin 

 silk jacket was the only protection his light frame had 

 from a nor' easter that would have penetrated through 

 any number of greatcoats. And yet the boy had a 

 hollow cough on him. And while we were expressing 

 our fears to Johnnie Osborne that the lad, who is a 

 striking image of the great Job and sits his horse in 

 exactly the same style, might soon follow in the foot- 

 steps of his father, we found he was very much amused 

 at our fears and pronounced them groundless. 



" And yet, in this strange weighing-room what 

 mighty Turf characters have been seen! It was here 

 that Jackson, who rode more Leger winners than any 

 man, with the exception of Bill Scott, went to scale year 

 after year; here the famous Billy Pierce, who used to 

 ' knee the lads ' so much, and when he could not beat 

 them any other way, made each of their horses in turn 

 run away, weighed in and out ; Bob Johnson, the famous 

 rider of Bee's-wing, and who gave up because Mr. 

 Lockwood would not place her for the Leger, was 

 also an habitue of the room. Afterwards came Sim 

 Templeman, with his almost annual Inheritress; and 



